Drucker’s Way of Turning Failure into Success

Rowland Hussey Macy graduated from business school. On four separate occasions, he opened a retail store, only to see each one fail. His fifth attempt succeeded, although the first day brought in a miniscule $11.08 in sales. Macy died a wealthy man, and 150 years later, Macy’s store still exists. Even though suffering periodic setbacks, Rowland Macy’s successors recently received a $5.8 billion buyout offer. 

Macy is a prime example of turning failure into success. Politicians also serve as examples of how following the right principles from Peter Drucker can allow one to advance from a dismal failure to outstanding success. Ronald Reagan was defeated twice as Republican nominee for U.S. president. He’d been a Democrat previously. He finally succeeded in becoming President of the United States on his third attempt. Another prominent U.S. president failed at just about everything. He failed in business and faced bankruptcy, and was defeated in bids for the Illinois State Legislature, Speaker of the House, an appointment for the U.S. Land Office, the U.S. Senate, and Vice President. Despite these setbacks, he became the 16th President of the United States in 1860 and took the country to war against the Confederate States. The 16th President was elected during major controversy and eventually saved the Union. To the best of my knowledge, no historian ever called Abraham Lincoln a failure.

Getting the Right Person for the Right Job

What is the key to turning failure into success? For Drucker, the most important step was getting the right person for the job. This step is frequently neglected by managers who are hiring others, as well as many emerging leaders. If you are the consultant or the responsible manager, you may well have inherited a subordinate. The process to obtain one may have started and been completed before you were in a position to make the decision. However, even if it is too late to do anything about finding the best person for the job, you may get in early enough to adjust, or at least correct the situation. 

If you are the individual looking at a possible new opportunity, just remember that Drucker said that staffing should be from the perspective of the right person for the right job. This means that matching the needs of the position with the individual’s strengths. Film actors frequently turn down potential roles in new movies because they know that the opportunity may not be right for them, or they have the wrong director or wrong co-star. Managers are artists of a different type. Still, a manager’s professional artistry in his or her work is of no less importance to the outcome of the endeavor. Drucker recommended following three important guidelines for the hiring manager:

1.      Think through the requirements of the job 

2.      Choose three or four candidates for the job rather than deciding 

immediately on one candidate

3.      Don’t make your final selection without discussing the choice with knowledgeable colleagues. This goes for all concerned directly with the appointment. 

The Requirements of the Job

A poorly designed job, one in which the requirements have not been thought through may be an impossible job, a job that no one can perform successfully. An impossible job means that work intended to be accomplished can only be accomplished poorly or cannot be done at all. Being impossible or nearly so risks the destruction, or at best, the misallocation of scarce and valuable human resources, including your own. To design a job properly, the objectives and requirements of the job must be analyzed to decide on those few requirements that are crucial to the job’s performance. That way the individual trying to fill the position can staff for strength, focusing the few critical areas of the job that are essential or more important. 

If you are the candidate, you should do an analysis yourself to ensure that to the best of your ability, you believe you can perform the job well and better than anyone else under the conditions intended. If you can’t, inquire as to whether the conditions you feel might hurt your ability to perform the job well can be changed.

Choose Multiple Candidates for a Job before Selection

Some managers promote or make selections for hiring after considering only one or two candidates. They are in a hurry or they are overly impressed with a single candidate for a position. At the very least, think through and select several candidates. The correct way according to Drucker is to consider three or four candidates, all of whom meet the minimum qualifications for the position and make the right decision. Have these selections right from the start. 

Sometimes the reason that this wisdom is ignored is that the hiring executive makes assumptions about a candidates’ suitability before considering all candidates qualifications against the prime job requirements. Establishing the most important requirements is a necessity and immensely helpful.

Managers having the opportunity to accept such a job frequently make a similar mistake. They are frequently blinded by the new job being a perceived promotion, paying better, or having a more impressive title. But all these factors are secondary to the ability to perform in the job and fully enjoy themselves during the challenge of their performance. As the manager looks at a prospective new job, being distracted by a few impressive, but less relevant factors is another reason to consider alternatives before accepting any position.

Discuss Your Choice with Colleagues 

Drucker was not saying that hiring and making job appointments is a group decision. It is not, and as the hiring executive you are responsible for the outcome regardless of others’ opinions with whom you should consult. You are still responsible. However, it makes sense to share your plans and get others’ opinions and ideas whenever it is possible to do so. Even if you decide to promote someone who others don’t recommend, at least you’ll know the pitfalls of your appointment and you’ll learn more about what others think and know regarding the various candidates you are considering.

Is this a Work in Progress?

It would be nice if every manager could hit the ground running in every new job. However, this isn’t always possible, especially in a new job that is new not only to the placed executive, but also to the organization. Whether new or old,  it may present a unique challenge to any a manger. A supervising manager can ease the way by clearly laying out requirements, meeting frequently during the early weeks with the individual in a new position, helping or assisting without doing the new appointee’s job for him or her, but above all, not letting the new appointee fail. So don’t be too hasty in immediately replacing a new assignment. Some need time to develop, and sometimes the assignment itself may have been made without knowledge of a particular factor or whether adequate resources such as money, personnel, equipment, or facilities have been allocated. Moreover, this can change given the way the new assignee operates or plans to operate. You may never be able to anticipate this precisely because there are many different ways of approaching any task; changes may need to be made depending on who holds the position now and who might in the future. 

Remembering that as the boss, you are there to help. Never forget the injunction: “Don’t you let him fail.” Again, if you are the job candidate, you need to look at yourself. You can stretch and learn and should expect those changes in any type of promotion. But if the job isn’t one you think you can learn or grow into, look at alternatives and discuss this with the individual who hired you.

Drucker’s People Approach

The idea that managers rise to their level of incompetence is a dangerous myth. If a manager isn’t performing, of course he needs to be relieved of his or her duties. But to automatically fire a manager due to failure with no further thought is, Drucker maintained, human sacrifice. There may be an equally challenging job available at which he or she can be highly successful, even if unsuited to this particular job. 

Implement Drucker’s suggestions and you will have an excellent “batting average” of promoting the right person into the right job and of success. If you take these actions your organization is on the way to being populated with the best and most qualified managers. And if you are the candidate for a promotion or a sideways move and one of these managers, you will help yourself to success as you turn past failures into success. You will contribute to the success of any activity the organization has undertaken and “save the Union” as Lincoln did.